Data Centre Veteran Guy Willner joins Apto as Senior Advisor
With a distinguished career spanning more than thirty years, Guy Willner joins data centre company Apto as a Senior Advisor to offer his experience and insight.
Guy Willner has worked in the data centre industry since 1999, most recently at IXAfrica, where he was involved in the pivotal role of data centres fast-tracking innovations across the African continent. He is also the Chairman of the International Data Centre Group, as he helps data centre advancement across numerous key industries.
He is joining Apto at a pivotal time for the company, as it commits to being a leader in hyperscale data centre developments. Having launched in September 2023, Apto’s goal is to serve cloud service providers in a customised way, ensuring that its hyperscale services revolve entirely around customer needs.
A forward-thinking approach to data centres
Having graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a BSc Engineering in 1986, Guy Willner began his journey in the technology industry at Philips, working in assembly language programming before moving back to the UK to work in telecoms with Vivendi.
It was his pivotal role as co-founder of IXEurope in 1998 that laid the groundwork for his extensive involvement in data centre ventures across Europe and beyond. His leadership at IXEurope resulted in the company’s acquisition by Equinix Inc. for US$555m in 2007, further marking Guy as a visionary leader in the data centre industry.
Since then, Guy has continued to spearhead successful data centre and hypercloud initiatives across Europe and Africa. His strategic investments and board memberships in key industry players underscore his understanding of global data centre markets, making him a respected authority in the field.
“Apto has assembled a remarkable team with outstanding backgrounds,” Guy says. “Their collective experience and skill set, combined with their shared vision and refreshing attitude, form the backbone of the company.
“I'm thrilled to contribute my knowledge and experience to help Apto navigate its growth trajectory and establish itself as a prominent player in the data centre market.”
As Senior Advisor, Guy will provide strategic guidance to Apto's leadership and leverage his multi-country experience, long-standing industry relationships and tenacity in building businesses from the ground up. His insights will be instrumental in steering Apto towards its ambitious goals of market expansion, in addition to meeting the innovative needs of its clients in a sustainable way.
With his guidance, Apto is well-positioned to accelerate its growth across the data centre industry, as it develops and operates the European data centre assets of global investment manager, PIMCO. The organisation will benefit from access to scale, resources and land sourcing capabilities.
Russell Poole, CEO at Apto, comments: “I'm delighted to welcome Guy to the Apto family. His wealth of experience and strategic acumen will be invaluable as we continue to advance our mission of delivering customer centric data centre solutions.”
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